Driving assistance device

Abstract

A driving assistance device includes: a vehicle surrounding image aquisitor acquiring a captured image of surroundings of a vehicle or by processing the captured image, as a vehicle surrounding image where the surroundings of the vehicle are visually recognized from a set viewpoint; an object detector detecting an object of attention being an object present around the vehicle requiring attention; a model image acquisitor acquiring a model image indicating an appearance of the object of attention; an assistance image generator generating an assistance image where the model image is synthesized with the vehicle surrounding image according to a position of the object of attention; and an image display displaying the assistance image on a display device such that the vehicle surrounding image excluding the model image has a luminance difference or a contrast ratio with the model image increasing stepwise as a distance from the viewpoint increases.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A driving assistance device comprising: 
 a vehicle surrounding image acquisition unit configured to acquire a captured image obtained by capturing an image of surroundings of a vehicle or an image obtained by processing the captured image, as a vehicle surrounding image in which the surroundings of the vehicle are visually recognized from a set viewpoint;   an object detection unit configured to detect an object of attention, which is an object present around the vehicle and requiring attention for the vehicle;   a model image acquisition unit configured to acquire a model image indicating an appearance of the object of attention;   an assistance image generation unit configured to generate an assistance image in which the model image is synthesized with the vehicle surrounding image according to a position of the object of attention; and   an image display unit configured to display the assistance image on a display device, wherein   the image display unit displays the vehicle surrounding image excluding the model image such that a luminance difference or a contrast ratio with the model image included in the assistance image increases in a stepwise manner as a distance from the viewpoint increases.   
     
     
         2 . The driving assistance device according to  claim 1 , wherein 
       the image display unit displays the vehicle surrounding image excluding the model image such that the luminance difference or the contrast ratio with the model image included in the assistance image increases by displaying the vehicle surrounding image in a single color in a stepwise manner as the distance from the viewpoint increases. 
     
     
         3 . The driving assistance device according to  claim 1 , wherein 
       the vehicle surrounding image is a bird's-eye view image obtained by viewing, using a virtual viewpoint in the sky as the set viewpoint, the surroundings of the vehicle down in an oblique direction from the viewpoint. 
     
     
         4 . The driving assistance device according to  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 a vehicle speed acquisition unit configured to acquire a vehicle speed of the vehicle, wherein   a position of the viewpoint, a line-of-sight direction when the surroundings of the vehicle are visually recognized from the viewpoint, or a display start position at which the display is performed such that the luminance difference or the contrast ratio with the model image increases is set based on the vehicle speed of the vehicle.   
     
     
         5 . The driving assistance device according to  claim 2 , further comprising: 
 a vehicle speed acquisition unit configured to acquire a vehicle speed of the vehicle, wherein   a position of the viewpoint, a line-of-sight direction when the surroundings of the vehicle are visually recognized from the viewpoint, or a display start position at which the display is performed such that the luminance difference or the contrast ratio with the model image increases is set based on the vehicle speed of the vehicle.   
     
     
         6 . The driving assistance device according to  claim 3 , further comprising 
       a vehicle speed acquisition unit configured to acquire a vehicle speed of the vehicle, wherein 
       a position of the viewpoint, a line-of-sight direction when the surroundings of the vehicle are visually recognized from the viewpoint, or a display start position at which the display is performed such that the luminance difference or the contrast ratio with the model image increases is set based on the vehicle speed of the vehicle.